When the Giants come to Philadelphia for Monday Night Football, they do so with a confident quarterback who is coming off a career performance.
Now with 102 wins under his belt, a franchise record, Eli Manning is clearly showing that he has an incredible grasp on his team's offense. Statistically, this has been his best start to a season.
"The whole offense, all the players have a better understanding and a better feel for this offense than we did last year," Manning said of the second year in coordinator Ben McAdoo's scheme. "We're protecting the football. We're not turning the ball over much.
"We're staying good down and distance. We're getting much more positive yards. We're not taking sacks. We're not having runs for negative yards. Guys are playing fast and making plays. We have to keep doing that. We have to keep finding completions and finding positive yards in good down and distance and convert on third down."
Although the stakes are high for this game to begin with, the Giants know they will be walking into a very loud stadium for a primetime game. The fans will be vocal and all the players will be ready to go, especially the Eagles who will be donning all black.
After New York's lack of production against the Eagles in black uniforms last year, Manning is hoping for a different outcome. The Giants know this will truly be an NFC East showdown.
"You know what to expect," Manning said. "It's going to be loud. They're going to be fired up. Prime time on Monday night should be a great atmosphere. We have a couple new guys that maybe haven't been in this atmosphere. Last year, we had some guys experience it.
"It's good and knowing that it's going to be loud and our communication has got to be great. We have to be good with our snap count and everybody on the same page and getting out of the huddle quickly just because it will be loud and we'll get some interesting looks on defense."
The quarterback also touched on the new look of the Eagles' secondary. Only one starter, safety Malcolm Jenkins, remains the same as when the Giants and Eagles last went head to head.
Manning is impressed by the amount of confidence the coaches and the players have together since they've only played five games thus far.
"It looks like their secondary is playing well. They play a good bit of man coverage," the quarterback said. "They trust their defensive backs outside on the corners, at the corner position, to play man. Obviously (they) went out in the offseason and signed some guys to help that and put a lot of confidence in them. We have to do a good job beating press coverage, beating man coverage and winning our individual matchups."
To hear Manning's conference call in its entirety, click here or press play on the embedded video player above.
